Golden Tate Highlights HD.

I posted this in another thread about ranking receivers.


I'm going to talk about Golden Tate for a bit, as he's getting left off a lot of these lists.

YAC

Led all WRs in 2014 in YAC yards. Was 2nd (to DeSean, who was also a monster) in average YAC among WRs with more than 50 receptions. Led all WRs with 50+ receptions in YAC average in 2013. A huge percentage of Tate's receptions occur at or behind the line of scrimmage. When he puts up yards, a lot of the time it's because he did it by making moves against opponents in space. I would argue that he is one of, if not THE, most elusive WR in the league right now, as he almost looks like a shifty RB with the ball in his hands. FO hasn't put out there broken tackles stats for 2014 yet, but in 2013 he led all WRs in broken tackles with 23. The next highest guy was Patterson with 18.

Volume

Tate didn't have flashy volume stats in terms of yardage, receptions, or TDs. He wasn't close to leading the league in any of those areas. That said, let's take a look at where he might have been if Calvin Johnson had missed the whole season. In the games where Calvin was out, or effectively out (weeks 4-8) Tate blew up while becoming our clear WR1. In that time, he average 7.8 catches per game, 119.8 yards per game, and .6 TDs per game. He also improved his average yards per reception from 13.4 to 15.4 (higher than Calvin's). Recognizing that it's not necessarily an accurate picture, but doing so anyway because it's the best we've got, I'm going to extrapolate those stats out over 16 games. So, that's 124.8 receptions, 1,916.8 yards, and 9.6 TDs. If he had put up those stats, we might be talking about him being the best receiver in the NFL. I suspect they wouldn't have been quite that high, but I think you get the point anyway, if he was our #1 receiver, he would have put up much gaudier stats. Also, it's worth noting that the Lions were 11th in total attempts. Of the 6 players ahead of Tate in total receiving yards, only Jordy Nelson was on a team that passed fewer total times.

Utilization

As I talked about in the YAC section, much of Tate's production comes from his work on short passes. However, that is simply because that's where we need him the most. He's fully capable of being a multi-dimensional receiver. Despite his height (5'10"), Tate is a bit of a jump ball artist. He's known for the non-call against Green Bay a couple years ago, and I agree that it shouldn't have been called a catch, mainly because he blatantly committed a foul on the play. That said, it's nothing new for Tate to be catching balls he has no business catching. He adjusts his route and his body to put himself in a favorable position to catch the ball away from the defender. Combined with his speed, which is impressive in and of itself, he is a fantastic deep threat. We saw in the games that Calvin missed his ability to catch the ball deep and then make a play after the ball. He had catches of 55, 73, and 59 yards in those games. As far as versatility goes, he's got to be in the top 3 WRs. As a side note, over the last 3 years he's had 11 rushing attempts for an average of 7.4 yards.

Hands

Golden Tate catches everything. Among WRs with 50+ receptions, he was 6th in lowest drop rate in 2014. The only WR with more receptions and fewer drops was Emmanuel Sanders. The same was true in 2013, where he was 5th in lowest drop rate among WRs with 50+ receptions. The only 2 players ahead of him both years in drop rate were Keenan Allen and Larry Fitzgerald. He also ranks top 7th and 5th respectively among WRs with 50+ receptions in 2013 and 2014 in % of targets caught. Theres a stat that was floated out there last year that since his entry into the league, no receiver had a higher % of targets caught. I don't know if that's still true as a couple of guys put up big years this year, but he's still close for sure.

Other

Tate is an excellent route runner. He's a stout blocker, who sometimes takes on guys a lot bigger than himself. He was an excellent team mate, always encouraging the guys around him. Whatever maturity issues there may have been earlier in his career seem to be gone, as there hasn't been a single incident since he came to the Lions that has made us shake our heads. He only had 1 penalty for a false start in 2014. That compares very favorably to guys like Brown (6), D. Thomas (4), Sanders (5), Green (5), Jeffery(7), and Marshall (4). Quite literally, the only receiver being listed in most of the comments here who cost his team less in penalty yards was T.Y. Hilton, who had 0 penalties.

TL;DR

He should be on everyone's list. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfPri2HGoQ4

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